Authors start your engines. We are told that at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, they're displaying what they call "a Smart Hairbrush", which apparently does this:
CES®, LAS VEGAS, January 3, 2017 – Today, Kérastase, the worldwide leader in professional luxury hair care, in partnership with Withings, the leader in the connected health revolution, announced the Kérastase Hair Coach Powered by Withings — the world's first-ever smart hairbrush. Developed in collaboration with L'Oréal's Research and Innovation Technology Incubator, the brush features Withings' advanced sensors and seamless product design along with L'Oréal's patent-pending signal analysis algorithms to score the quality of hair and monitor the effects of different hair care routines. An accompanying mobile app provides additional insights and customized product recommendations to help people better care for their hair.
The brush is a recipient of this year's International CES Innovation Award, which celebrates outstanding product design and engineering in new consumer technology products.
According to a report published by L'Oréal scientists* , forceful hair brushing has been proven to cause hair damage, including breakage and split ends. The Kérastase Hair Coach Powered by Withings minimizes these risks, taking advantage of multiple sensors that provide information on the quality of hair and brushing patterns. These include: A microphone that listens to the sound of hair brushing to identify patterns, providing insights into manageability, frizziness, dryness, split ends and breakage. 3-axis load cells that measure the force applied to the hair and the scalp when brushing. An accelerometer and a gyroscope which help further analyze brushing patterns and count brush strokes, with haptic feedback signaling if brushing is too vigorous. Conductivity sensors to determine if the brush is being used on dry or wet hair in order to provide an accurate hair measurement. The brush itself is splash proof.
The entire Internet commentariat is buzzing with "who needs a smart hairbrush", and "another useless bit of technology" -- but I am certain that spanking writers know better
Get to your keyboards, the race is on, who among us can find a use for this so-called "useless" invention? |